Heppner girl experiences life in a
Caribbean paradise
Bc s 3 i a
etzall
U o.' J tie 3 p a j j r I
E li c a n e , OR 9 74J3
VOL. 123
NO. 1
6 Pages
Wednesday, January 7,2004
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Photo by Lee Jeffries
Gary Wight uses his four wheeler to plow the sidewalks of Heppner and keep them
safe for walking. While the Bank of Eastern Oregon temperature sign registers a
minus 6 degrees early Monday morning.
The weather was the
topic o f conversation all over
the state as temperatures took
dramatic dips and many areas
in the region, including
P en d leto n , H erm iston,
Meacham and Heppner saw
record lows.
H eppner saw -7
degrees as o f 3:18 a.m .
Monday, January 5, with the
thermometer at the Bank o f
Eastern Oregon registering 1
degree around 9 a.m. Schools
were closed throughout the
M orrow C ounty School
District and lone Monday.
Schools opened as usual
Tuesday.
Condon saw a -1 at
8:30 a.m. with the road closed
to oversize movement due to
packed and drifting snow,
according to the Oregon
Department ofTransportation
online (www.tripcheck.com)
Slob Sisters to return to Town
and Country event
The ‘"Slob Sisters” will
be the featured entertainment
at Heppner’s annual Town
and Country Banquet, “2004.
. .Heppner for All Seasons",
on Thursday, January 15 at the
H eppner Elks Club. The
evening will get underway with
a no-host social hour at 6 p.m.
with a baron of beef dinner to
begin at 7 p.m.
The evening will also
include the coronation o f the
Morrow County Fair and
O regon Trail Pro Rodeo
Court, the Morrow County
Extension aw ard, annual
ch am ber o f com m erce
aw ard s-m an ,
w om an,
business, educator, youth and
lifetime achievement awards,
and door prizes, compliments
of Peterson’s Jewelers.
Tickets are available
for $20 each at the Bank of
Eastern Oregon, M urray’s
Drug and Morrow County
Grain Growers.
For more information
and reservations contact the
H eppner C ham ber o f
Commerce, 676-5536.
Everyone is welcome
to attend a variety of meetings
hosted by the Morrow County
Livestock Growers and the
Soil and Water Conservation
District upstairs at the Elks
Club during the afternoon of
January 15. Contact Janet
Greenup. SWCD, 676-9011,
or Bill Broderick, Extension
Service, 676-9642.
Pendleton was -15 degrees at
6:31 a.m., with an official low
of-20, and Hermiston was -
6 at 6:34 a.m. with an official
low o f - 12, Arl ington was -2
degrees at 8:34 a.m., but no
place could beat Meacham
with a -2 7 at 6:33 a.m., and
an official low o f -31, also
clo sed
to
o v ersized
movement.
The forecast is for
warmer temperatures as the
week progresses.
City hired public
works director
A new public works
director has been hired by the
City of Heppner.
Bruce Nelson, 41,
com es to
H e p p n er
f r o m
J u n c tio n
City where
he grew
up
and
worked 10
years for
the city
public
H eppner
native
Janelle Healy at first thought
o f a trip to The Dominican
Republic as an adventure, but
once there found that she had
d isco v ered not only an
extended family, but also a
love o f the country, people
and culture (not to mention
dancing!).
H ealy, a
1999
H eppner H igh School
graduate who had just turned Janelle at Playa Punta Rucia on the North Beach on
21 y ears old, was at a the Atlantic Ocean
crossroads in her life. She had
recently finished a two-year
program at Mount Hood
C om m unity C ollege and
pondered her next move. Her
m other, C arm en Healy,
Heppner, who was bom and
raised in The Dominican
Republic, suggested that she
travel to The Dominican
Republic to hone her Spanish
speaking skills. Janelle at first
th o u g h t no, but then
reconsidered, and called her
mother back, saying, “Were
you serious?” “1 thought if I
didn’t like it I could always
come home,” said Janelle. “It
Janelle Healy (left) and her cousin, Vudelka Cruz, from
was pretty scary at first, but
The Dominican Republic, at the Healy home in Heppner
once 1 got there it was pretty
smooth sailing.
Once she decided to
give it a try, the adventure
began. At first Janelle stayed
with Carmen’s brother, Paco
Tineo, in Santiago, a city of
around 1.8 million people, but
Jan e lle , used to her
independence after living on
her own for the past year,
chafed at her uncle’s very strict
and “old-fashioned” rules.
Another factor was that she
had not learned much Spanish
during the time she lived with Janelle's home in The Dominican
her uncle because she didn't
have much contact with other
people. She attended Spanish
courses in school, and found
that the classes helped, but
discovered that interaction
with other Spanish speakers
was the key. She had
befriended a woman from
Thailand, Vimol Anderson,
who arrived in The Dominican
the same day she did. They
were both new to the country
and helped each other. The
woman, who had come to The
Dominican with her Swedish
h usband, who w as an
engineer, lived nearby and
Janelle soon moved in with
her. Janelle lived with Vimol for Janelle with her former roommate, Vimol Anderson, on
two months until she returned the North Beach
to Thailand. Janelle then
moved in w ith a distant relative
(C arm en’s sister-in-law 's
uncle), only around five
houses down from where her
uncle Paco lives, and where
she plans to return after her
visit to Heppner.
Janelle’s dad, Jerry
Healy, says that only a short
distance from where Janelle
lives in a neighborhood of
wealthy homes, families live in
extreme poverty. “This (the
slu m s)
is
a
good
n eig h b o rh o o d ,
though Janelle relaxes at a neighborhood shop
compared to one in Haiti,”
adds Jerry, who met his wife,
Carmen, when he served with
the Peace C orps in The
Dominican in the mid-70s.
Jan elle says that
Dominicans eat more or less
the same thing almost every
day-called “la bandera” (the
flag), a combination o f rice,
beans and m eat, m ainly
chicken. Carmen Healy says
that Dominican meals consist
o f basically the same dry
ingredients as Mexican food, Dilapidated slums only a short distance from Janelle's
continued page six
home in The Dominican
works
department
He also
worked
three years for the city of
Harrisburg. Nelson is single.
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